Ir any proof wore needed of the utter wealcioss and, indeed, uselessness of the Shanghai Chamber- of Commerce, it might be easily furnished by a perusal of the correspondence which recently took place between that body and Messrs, Adamson, Bell & Ca. The {nots of the case are, no doubt, familiar to most of our readers, In the month of Muy, 1883, a dispute arose between the fiom in question and the Tea Quild at Hankow. Offers for certain chops of toa were made by the buyer of Messrs, Adamson's, subject to the Chamber of Commerce terms. The broker was willing to accept the price, but declined to deal on the conditions named, Chest-musters were, however, sout in, and thereupon a report was spread to the effect that the foreign firm had accepted the terms of the Chinese, On this being contradicted, Uke musters were withdrawn, and the firm formally tabooed. " We are as/ cured on the authority of one of the members of the Guild who attended the mooting," sny Messrs. Adamson, Boll & Ao., "that several of the tea-longs objected to the mensure, but that strong pressure was brought to bear upon them to force them to sign the agreement. The taboo was removed from our firm solely by the concession of foreigners generally tothe terms imposed by the Guilds, upon which' the native tea-mon wore permitted to resume business with us, There is no doubt that, as in previous onses of taboo, such as the. outrageous one at Swatow, a fow leading mon among (ho native teas trade made use of their influence to coerce less power= ful members into Joining the begat combination, and several that protest. ed against it were threatened with talkative measures if they did not join." Now there are "three points worthy of consideration in the facts that are here detailed. In the firet place, foreign -mercbants are~at the mercy of.a native clique; there is probably not a firm in China which may not be compelled to submit..to a similar insult almost avy day, and find itself in the alarming. position of being unable to execute the mesh préssig pi orders. In the second place, the taboo was only removed by the profowiid humiliation of every house in' the trade, all of whom were foreed"to obey the dictation of the native dealers. Inthe third place, the action of the Guild, which the foreign firms were. apparently powerless to withstand, was illegal and contrary to Treaty. All privileged commercial societies, all coalitions for exercising monopolies on trade, are distinctly prohibited by the 14th Article of the French Treaty of 1858, to the effect of which members of all Trenty Powers are entitled. Nothing could be clearer than that the action of the Tea Guild was indefensible from. every one of these points of view, and that Messrs. Adamson Bell & Ca, bad a just ground for the representations they were forced to make, Bat what does the Chamber do? Itis "anxious" to bring the facts before the notice of the Ministers at Poking; but it does not consider that these facts contain sufficient evidence of illegal notion on the part of the Guild. It is necessary for Messrs. Adamson, Bull & Ca., to produce documents" or "correspondence;" the Chamber attaching, apparently, no im. portance to the fact that the British Consulat Hankow, who is acknowledged to be one of the best authorities on inter. national questions of this nature, had taken the matter up with his usual promptness and energy, and had called upon the Tuo-tai there to prevent the migrant breach of 'I'reaty complained of. It is difficult to characterise in too strong terms this display of feebleness and timidity on the part of the Shanghai Chamber. But the principles on which the whole trade is carried on are so am-bignous that one cannot wonder at it over-much. There must be some reason for the representative body of merchants in Shanghai declining to interfere on behalf of a firm which has been the victim of an illegal action, and acquiescing in the humiliation of the entire ten-trade in submitting to the autocratic dictates of an illegal body.
must be clear to the most ordinary intelligence, however, that as matters stand at present foreign buyers are at a grievous disadvantage, lhe-Chinese combine, and by Look or by crook, by dint of intimidation or what not, manage to present an unbroken front to the foreigners, The foreigners, me stead of combining in their tury, com: pote with each other, and go play into the hands of their oppanouts, As long tae this atate of things cantinges ao long will the Chinese keep the upper hand. Combin H can only be stick Gessfully met by combination, ' "The competition of a Score of firms among themselves must' result:: disnstrously when -opposed to. the: combiied forces of the Chinese. dealers. Let.this principle.be, carried out, "The moment a firm'is boycotted on frivolous or sonal grounds, let the entire trade suspend operations until the taboo is re-would deter the Chinese from puttitig a tabdo'in force'; nnd, were they's advised:'ns: to' do'so, the' effects would fall on'thom more: beavily o gront'-deal than upon the foreign bayers. It -will no doubt be said that buyera: in Hankow have their orders from home, and: that those orders must. be: executed at any price, But London merchants would surely be able to sco that, for the general interests. of the trade, it may be imperative occasionally for Lheir correspondents in China to take united action, even if such action' were to' involve' the stispension of operations for a day or two. In any case, nothing oould..be more unsatisfactory than the present state of things, or more humid hating to the, foreign buyers, or more advantageous to the Chiness. The tone trade should, in self-defence, form ite self into a longue, with rules and, bylaws for conducting its operations, and, if nevossary, appoint a secretary for carrying on correspondence and tran secting the more purely clerical portion of its business, The Chamber of Com. merce is-an imposing abstraction, and nothing more, Even its fortnightly circular is being dispensed with by many firms, and it us dono very little for some years to justify ite'raison détro,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.